A group of three people were arrested in connection to the gang-rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl in northern Kunduz province of Afghanistan.

The provincial police chief Gen. Abdul Hamid Hamidi said the minor girl was initially gang-raped by the men and was strangled to death.

He said the incident took place nearly three weeks ago and the men were arrested after the dead body of the girl was found from a yard.

According to Hamidi, the perpetrators of the incident were arrested during the search operation and investigations of the security forces and their cases have been referred to the judiciary institutions.

This comes as rape incidents involving armed individuals against the minor children are on the rise in the remote parts of the country amid rampant violence against the women.

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission officials said last year that they have recorded around 3,000 cases of violence against women and young girls.

An 8-year-old girl was also gang-raped and was brutally murdered by a group of armed men in southern Uruzgan province of Afghanistan earlier this month.